That the catalog is filled to the brim with excellent recordings of the Tchaikovsky and Chopin First piano concertos does not stop Deutsche Grammophon from adding these new versions. Never mind that the yellow label already has recorded the Tchaikovsky with Argerich (twice), Berman, Cherkassky, Richter, Kissin, Ott, Lang Lang, and Pogorelich, as well as the Chopin with Askenase, Vasary, Argerich, Yundi, Pires, Blechacz, Lang Lang, Barenboim, and Zimerman (twice): the 2010 Warsaw International Chopin Competition second-place winner Ingolf Wunder must get his turn.
In a less crowded catalog Wunder’s unquestionable skills and professionalism would be easy to recommend without the slightest qualification, not to mention the St. Petersburg Philharmonic’s contributions with Vladimir Ashkenazy at the podium. But do these performances hold their own with the best? Take the first movement’s lyrical second theme, for example, where Wunder’s stolid, foursquare pianism pales next to Denis Matsuev’s elegantly stretched out phrasing. Although Wunder’s fingerwork in the second movement’s central Prestissimo is admirably supple and fleet, it lacks the melodic accentuations and balletic profile Ashkenazy himself brought to the piano part in his 1963 Decca recording with Lorin Maazel. The Allegro finale does not quite live up to Tchaikovsky’s “con fuoco” directive, on both the pianist and conductor’s part; in fact, Ashkenazy elicited more pointed rhythms and robust string playing from the Berlin Philharmonic in a 1988 EMI recording with Andrei Gavrilov tearing up the keyboard.
Next to the crisp and judiciously balanced accompaniment that Ashkenazy and the Czech Philharmonic provided for Elisabeth Leonskaja’s Chopin E minor concerto recording, the St. Petersburg musicians sound heavier and less incisive in loud tuttis, although one must acknowledge the first desk soloists’ chamber-like interaction. The main problem is that Wunder’s suave and generalized fioritura passagework goes in one ear and out the other. If you don’t believe me, compare Wunder alongside Lang Lang, Blechacz, Argerich, Perahia, and Zimerman in the first movement’s second subject and development section, in the central Romance movement’s elaborate tracery, or in the Rondo coda’s dazzling unison runs. Listeners curious about today’s rising keyboard stars and how they handle the concerto repertoire’s greatest hits might wish to sample this disc, but the Wunder/Ashkenazy collaborations offer little that has not been done better.